Cut to the North mansion..
North: I just can’t believe it. He was here this morning, some crazy story about Russian defectors being kidnapped.
[this room seems quite huge and empty no?! And.. drum roll.. check out the baddie desk accessories 
okay okay.. no baddie phone.. but close!]
Lee: Well I’m afraid it may not be so crazy. Did he tell you who he thought was responsible?
North: No, he wasn’t sure. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t take it very seriously because Jerry Dunlap is , well he’s somewhat of an alarmist. As a matter of fact, his future at Aero North was not all that certain.
[so now Jerry is dead.. are you going to take it seriously?!
lol North doesn’t look up and meet Lee and Amanda’s eyes much.. it’s like he’s reading his lines off his desk! He’s a dumb baddie!]
Amanda: Mr. North, do you know a Jake Lawrence at the State Department?
[I like that Amanda is getting to ask a question too!!!!
Only…. – Nooooo! Gahh!!! by asking that question, you tell North what you know.. ugh..and.. as if he’d say yes?! So why ask?! ]
North: No
Lee: Well it’s no secret that until about a year ago, Aero North was having some severe financial problems. Then suddenly things turned around with some fat government contracts.
[Why would Aero north get fat government contracts based on their access to the leaked information? when the defectors had already disclosed that same information to the government? me confused.. wouldn’t Aero North have sold the technology overseas? uh oh.. me think too much.. focus on Lee’s hair.. there’s a good girl.. gah! It’s flat! no no!!! that’s not working!!! help??!!!]
North: Hard work and good timing.
[this baddie is rockin the cardy – be afraid everyone.. be very afraid! and yes.. this lame baddie interrogation has me distracted!]
Lee: Maybe a little too good huh? I mean overnight, Aero North seems to have gained the competitive edge over the rest of the industry here…
…Research and development, bids all very…
…tailor made.
North: Are you suggesting some impropriety??
Lee: No, no, no….
[Love Lee’s lopsided grin here! He’s super casual.. too super casual?]
…no I’m just….speculating….that’s all. I mean, if a company like your own were able to get a hold of the latest Russian designs, well you’d know just what the Pentagon wanted to buy.
[It wouldn’t take long for the pentagon to smell a rat when this company keeps offering the technologies the govt knows the Russians are using and is cutting edge.. what a coincidence! this company keeps coming up with innovations that the Russian defectors are telling us about! lol.. And if the pentagon has the information about the technology, they could go contract someone and share that technology no?? It wouldn’t have to already be in place? hmm.. well.. either way, this gig was bound to go kaput eventually!
Hey – Do you think Lee suspects him? I mean.. he should.. but do you think he does?]
(North rises to his feet.. looming over Lee..)
[whooo he headed ‘North’! He ‘lived up’ to his name! 
]
North: Mr. Stetson….unless you have proof I would keep those kind of allegations to yourself!
[Speculations! not allegations!
Actually if North was a goodie CEO in charge of a baddie employee he’d kinda be wanting to know about it no? Like he pretended with Jerry earlier?! Oh dear.. am I over thinking things… again??!!] The scene ends here.
When I first saw this scene.. I’m sure I had no problem with it.. nowadays, this type of scene doesn’t make smk sparkle for me (though if I just focus on Lee it’s all good!).. Maybe it’s just me – but this is one area where I think TV has actually improved since the 80s – the quality of the writing when questioning baddies. (Castle being the exception. Sorry if you love it.)
Maybe… this is Lee again shaking the bushes to wake up the snake like he did in wrong way home? because all Lee and Amanda have done is tell North what they know (including that they know about Jake Lawrence!) and they’ve learned nothing.. Meh.. I think I’ve been spoilt by The Closer! Ah well.. at least the audience learned something new in this little scene.. we learned of the Aero North’s previous financial woes that have been turned around… ahhhh the greedy entrepreneur.. they always make good baddies.. in any decade.. Hope this North ends up face first in a cake somewhere and suffocates.. ahem.. did I just type that?! eek!
We move on to the corvette driving down a very quiet main road – it must be very late at night.
Lee: I want to stake out Jake Lawrence’s place. He’s the key to this.
[Ahhhhh I think because Dotty is in trouble here, Lee is just not going to go home to bed.. you know??!!
Hmm – yet again we have another scene that we are watching through a car windscreen!!!! what does this all mean??!!]
Amanda: If he worked for the defence department instead of State it would make more sense.
[IMHO Not really! State gives him access to the defectors to gain their trust.. and to threaten them with deportation no??!]
Lee: You mean it could be legitimate?
Amanda: Well, yeah it would be like a sting or something.
[You mean like what IFF err the agency is suppose to have been doing? A sting of a sting???!!]
Lee: Well it’s not a sting exactly, we call it a store but you’ve got the right idea.
(Amanda smiles a little at hearing this.. awh!)
…See men like Zernoff are vulnerable to threats by police, real or otherwise. They’re alone in a new country and Jake Lawrence is a, well the only friend they’ve got.
[A ‘store’ this is new to me.. anyone? ‘only friend’ ..Access! there ya go! Lee heard Lawrence workin it..]
Amanda: Yeah . Except Zernoff has my mother.
[yeah.. bummer that!]
Lee: Amanda, I don’t know how to tell you how sorry I am.
[Oh! my! gosh!!! what a great little honest communicator he is being here! very open and genuine.. and it’s totally swoony!]
Amanda: Oh it’s ok, I’m as much to blame as you are.
Lee: We’re gonna find her
Amanda: I know we are. I know.
Lee: Look I’ll take you home. You can cover that base.
[Being so late.. I guess the boys are not at home? alone?! Strange that they no longer rate a mention..]
Amanda: Yeah
Lee: It’s getting pretty late.
(Amanda doesn’t really respond..she just kind of makes a regretful sound..)
As the scene closes.. the last thing we see is Lee give Amanda a sideways little look..
Another touching moment that fades into a transition
IMHO Lee regretful about what’s happened, but mostly worried for what Amanda must be going through right now.
–This transition reminds me of the over the limit moment where Amanda flirts with Lee and gives him the rose
IMHO.. Amanda is being brave, and I think she isn’t fully opening herself up to Lee here.. she certainly isn’t confiding her worries and fears to him.. she’s still quite self contained. Will this change as she gives in to her feelings and her trust in Lee builds? I like to think so.. we shall see!!!
What do you all make of this scene?! Care to share?? And what do you make of all the scenes through a windscreen??!!! I can’t wait to hear what you all think! byeee for now
"Just walk with me.." 
Good morning everyone!!! [well it’s morning here at least!]
I thought there’d be discussion about how lovely Lee is in this scene here.. such a poignant moment.. I’m guessing many of you are away right now or too busy right now..
Just know that – when you have time or headspace for JWWM these posts are always open to comment..
Your thoughts, gushing, swooning, gripes, regrets, reminisces, speculation, accusations? (ahem. sorry got inspired by this post!) – don’t keep them to yourself- Share!!! It multiplies the FUN!!! I know… it multiplies the SMKFUN. New word. I created it. I have a nerve huh 😉
anyway, I wanted to add that I wrote in this post: “IMHO.. Amanda is being brave, and I think she isn’t fully opening herself up to Lee here.”
I thought.. hmm sounds like I’m linking the two and didn’t express myself clearly.. I think Amanda is being brave by keeping it together while her mum is in danger.. and I also think she is holding back from Lee somewhat..
but I’m not saying holding back is bravery lol.. when she is ready to fully open up to Lee- and the time is right and she takes that leap (I’m assuming one day she will) – I will call that brave too! 🙂
Hope I’m making some kinda smksense here.. got RL stuff to do.. hope you are all well and bye for now! 🙂
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Ah! Your comment has enticed me to disregard all else that claims my attention!
Yes! Lee is beautifully amazing here. We all knew he had it in him and, voila! Here it is!
I like to think that this is the first episode where Lee is fully present to his love for Amanda, and I love watching him let it direct him. And not only is he fully present in that, he is also figuring out how to also be fully present on the job. And what better a “baptism” ( I know, maybe too over the top spiritual there, but it popped into my head, so why not?) than on a case that is involving his beloved’s mother. And what a loaded issue that is for our dear Lee. I think he is feeling it and Amanda is still in the blissful state of oblivion. Oh, she is distraught about her mother, and a bit embarrassed about Lee overhearing her mother’s marriage comments and then the whole “Huck Finn” comment, but she has no clue how much this case is wrecking the old Scarecrow. What is brilliant though, is that her dogged professional response is only endearing the love sick man even more. Love this scene! Time to go write the Scotch Thoughts story for this episode!!!
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Morley this comment of yours gave me shivers- it’s sooooo goooooood!!!
I can only imagine how good these scotch thoughts are going to be – whoo hoo!!
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Good grief, Morley. What an amazingly beautiful and articulate comment!!!!!!!!
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I am totally loving Lee in all of this. He seems so fully committed to being there for Amanda right now. I think he wants to do for Dotty what he’s done for Amanda all this time. I think he wants to be able to rescue Dotty and bring her back to Amanda safe and sound. The way he apologizes is just wonderful. It sounds almost like the responsibility he feels or felt about giving Amanda the package and getting her involved in the Agency in the first place. Amanda seems a bit oblivious to all of this at the moment. Granted she is focused on her mother and I like that she is not being hysterical, but quietly stoic.
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Quick comment, but will be back at a later date to play some catch up. I think Lee is using store as short for storefront. Sometimes a sting might be called a storefront operation. I think they’ve used it a couple of times already especially in The Three Faces of Emily.
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That makes sense. 🙂
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I thought that L&A might be baiting North here, trying to see how he reacted, if he got uptight… which he did.
I think Amanda is pretty worried about her mother here, but trying to demonstrate that she can put personal feelings aside and concentrate on the case. It is taking a lot of her energy to do this though.
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Very true Kiwismh.. great point!
That Amanda can form a sentence together right now is kudos to her – good point!
Thanks to this little scene at the end of this post, I think Lee can see that too – and he loves that about her 🙂
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“Well it’s not a sting exactly, we call it a store but you’ve got the right idea.”
“[A ‘store’ this is new to me.. anyone? ‘only friend’ ..Access! there ya go! Lee heard Lawrence workin it..]”
I thought it might be “score” rather than “store”, but Lee/BB clearly says store and the script says store:
“LEE Not a ‘sting’ exactly .. .what we call a ‘store’, but you’ve got the idea. (beat)…”
Wouldn’t it be funny if it was a typo in the script (‘cos that never happened — rolleyes) that ended up being spoken that way? 😀
(Or maybe the writer meant “fraud” and the script was dictated and ended up as “store”… like the typo idea above, but even better! LOL.)
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I’ve never heard of “store” like he seems to mean it, either. I suppose it could be a real term, but I’ve never encountered it before. If you google “FBI store” (which I tried to see if it was a law enforcement term), you find a site that sells t-shirts that say “FBI” on them.
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LOL. I had tried some variants of “sting versus store” and “sting versus score” and ended up with some interesting — and funny — hits. Nothing helpful, though… but I did only spend about 60 seconds on it. 😀 Things to do, things to do…
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thanks for exploring this KC, Kiwismh and Jestress!
Sounds like Valerie may have solved this one 🙂 I agree KC, the idea of Lee err I mean BB saying the typo is funny! 🙂
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On quickie just to say that I think the boys are on an overnight somewhere. In that first scene with them and the cookie girl and the Russian novel, Jamie had a sleeping bag, I think.
I have to go pick beans and cucs and peas now. I will be back later
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Man, I wish my kids went on as many sleepovers and camp outs as Amanda’s boys did. No wonder I never made it as a spy. 🙂
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rofl. Yep so convenient!!!
I think the lesson here for Dotty and Amanda is: don’t let the boys have sleep overs – when they have them, suddenly bad things start to happen. Heck.. just.. never let them leave the house! 🙂
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